Since Katy and Brian Healy took over this Perthshire restaurant four years ago, they have built a loyal customer base. This is thanks to a combination of keen prices, traditional dishes with a twist and a chirpy, smiley brand of engaging service. Oh, and there's the wine.
While the list starts with bottles of house wine at just over a tenner, it has a wide choice thereafter - and a hefty menu of bin ends, which is delivered separately. It's an outstanding selection for a small restaurant in the sticks. From half-bottles of the treacly and hard to find D'Arenberg Dead Arm to £250 bottles of 1966 Château Lafite and £500 bottles of Château Petrus, this is clearly a place that cares as much about what's in your glass as it does about what's on your plate.
This was made clear when I saw the couple next to us discussing their wine choice with Brian Healy, and was reinforced after dinner when I went to the bar to find his wife Katy and a regular customer deep in discussion about an entry in Jancis Robinson's Encyclopedia of Wine. If you take a look on the Deil's Cauldron website, you'll find that all of the special events held here are wine evenings accompanied by dinner, rather than the other way around. Whether it's accompaniments for game, wines from Chile or the bottle for a perfect Christmas, there is a heavy emphasis on the liquid side of the culinary equation.
But there is a similar emphasis on food, with the result that a fairly interesting but traditional menu is transformed by the addition of a large board of specials, virtually all of which Jake, my dining companion, and I found more alluring than the regular menu.
Jake started with a bowl of peeled king prawns from the specials board, while I went for the risotto of smoked haddock from the main menu. Both dishes passed with flying colours. Jake's prawns were nicely complemented by a lush cream sauce laced with white wine and garlic, while my heavy risotto was a sparkling mix of deep cheese and fish tones that had me purring with pleasure.
Both main courses were solid without being spectacularly good. Jake's lamb shank came with a dark gravy and creamy garlic mash, and passed muster as decent comfort food. Unfortunately, the meat didn't quite fall off the bone at the first touch, as you might hope from a perfectly cooked shank. My breast of duck with dauphinoise potatoes and damson sauce was better. Accompanying the delicate, thin-cut slices of duck were creamy potatoes, which were a little light on garlic, and a pungent damson sauce that meshed the whole dish together nicely.
Jake came out on top in the pudding stakes. His huge bowl of excellent raspberry crème brûlée comfortably eclipsed my warm chocolate-and-caramel cake, which didn't really taste of either ingredient. The tablet ice-cream that came with it went some way to making up the flavour shortfall. This, however, is a small whinge after a meal that was served in extremely comfortable surroundings, in front of a blazing fire in a cosy restaurant that deserves to prosper. The service was attentive without being overbearing, and the meal added up to good value, with main courses starting from just £10. For those who don't fancy a meal, there is also a bar, which serves an extensive tapas menu.